Kharkiv Project Management Day Андрій Павлюков "Self-organization and delegation"

1. Self-organization
and Delegation
management30.com/delegation-boards

2. 2
Andrii Pavliukov / andrewpavlyukov@gmail.com
Certified Management 3.0 owner, trainer
and Agile Coach with a lot of experience
with different organizations - from small to
enterprise scale. The main focus of my
trainings and workshops is application of
Agile Leadership practices in different
contexts

3. Empower Teams: Teams can
self-organize, and this requires
empowerment, authorization,
and trust from management.
2

4. Story

5. How can we get people
to self-organize?
How do we delegate
responsibilities?

6. The English verb “to manage”
was originally derived from the
Italian maneggiare, meaning to
handle and train horses.
- Kurtz and Snowden, “Bramble Bushes in a Thicket”
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/237133296_Bramble_Bushes_in_a_Thicket_Narrative_and_the_intangibles_of_learning_networks

7. The Self-fulfilling
Prophecy Trap
People behave according to how
they are treated.
For example, when the manager
always changes what people
deliver, why bother making it
perfect? Thus, quality of work
goes down, and the manager
sees confirmation that more
control is needed...

8. To Control or Not to Control
Central control of a complex system
doesn’t work, because the central
node of a network cannot possibly
contain all information that is needed
to make good decisions everywhere.

9. Each worker has only an incomplete mental model of all
the work. And the same goes for the manager! That is
why it’s best to distribute control among everyone.

10. What scientists call distributed control is usually
called empowerment by management experts.

11. Many people are wrong
about empowerment.

12. The Dictators
“Workers should be
empowered by
managers so that they
take on more
responsibilities, feel
more committed, and
be more engaged. The
managers decide who is
empowered, and who is
not.”

13. A good deal of what is today
called “empowerment” is
really just getting rid of years
of disempowerment.
- Henry Mintzberg, Simply Managing

14. The Anarchists
“Workers are already
empowered by default.
Nobody is needed to
grant them powers.
There are no managers,
only leaders. And they
inspire workers to
exercise the powers
they already have.”

15. Empowerment defined
empower /əmˈpou(ə)r/
1. (authority)
to give official authority or legal power to (by legal
or official means) / to invest with power
2. (ability)
to promote the self-actualization or influence of /
to supply with an ability

16. “I authorized (empowered) a team member to
take control of our company’s bank account.”

17. “I help my team members with their ability (empowerment)
to manage our social media marketing.”

18. Dictators know and understand only the first meaning of
the word empowerment (authority), while anarchists favor
only the second meaning (ability). In most organizations,
we need both.

19. Empowerment == Distributed Control
Empowered people improve system effectiveness
and survival. Empowered organizations are more
resilient and agile.

20. We aim for a more
powerful system, not
better-controlled people.
(And besides, creative
workers cannot be
controlled anyway.)

21. The more educated
people are, the less
effective authoritarian
power is.

22. Empowerment
requires delegating
decisions
Managers often fear a
loss of control when
teams take over
decision-making. And
creative workers
sometimes have no
idea how to take
responsibility.
?

23. Accountable vs. Responsible
What is the difference?

24. Accountability
getting control from
someone (authority)
Responsibility
exercising control for
oneself (ability)

25. The Accountability Trap
Quite often, it only trickles down.
In traditional organizations,
“superiors” seek fulfillment of
their own goals over the
fulfillment of others, and they
hold their “subordinates”
accountable without
acknowledging that they
themselves should be held
accountable for the success and
well-being of the workers.

26. The bond between a boss
and the subordinate often
makes for an unhealthy
parent-child relationship.
- Frédéric Laloux, Reinventing Organizations

27. Empowerment is a reflexive relationship between two
equal partners. We should replace superiors and
subordinates with control-givers and control-takers.

28. Giving and Taking Control
Quite often, when managers delegate work to
people or teams, they don’t give them clear
boundaries of control.

29. A manager should make it perfectly clear what
the person’s or team’s level of control is in a
certain area.

30. Handing over control also works
the other way around because of
the reflexive relationship of
empowerment.

31. By distributing control in an organization,
we not only empower workers, we also
empower the managers.

32. The expectation is that the
frontline teams do everything,
except for the things they choose
to push upward.
- Frédéric Laloux, Reinventing Organizations

33. Who delegates to whom
in your company?

34. The Seven Levels of Delegation

35. Delegation is not a binary thing. There are
more options than being a dictator or an
anarchist. The art of management is in
finding the right balance.

36. 1. Tell
You make a decision
for others and you may
explain your
motivation. A
discussion about it is
neither desired nor
assumed.

37. 2. Sell
You make a decision
for others but try to
convince them that
you made the right
choice, and you help
them feel involved.

38. 3. Consult
You ask for input first,
which you take into
consideration before
making a decision that
respects people’s
opinions.

39. 4. Agree
You enter into a
discussion with
everyone involved, and
as a group you reach
consensus about the
decision.

40. 5. Advise
You will offer others
your opinion and hope
they listen to your wise
words, but it will be
their decision, not
yours.

41. 6. Inquire
You first leave it to the
others to decide, and
afterwards, you ask
them to convince you
of the wisdom of their
decision.

42. 7. Delegate
You leave the decision
to them and you don’t
even want to know
about details that
would just clutter your
brain.

43. The 7 Levels of Delegation is a symmetrical model.
It works in both directions.

44. Consult is the opposite of Advise.
The 7 Levels of Delegation is a symmetrical model.
It works in both directions.

45. The 7 Levels of Delegation is a symmetrical model.
It works in both directions.
Sell is the mirror of Inquire.

46. Dictators say, “You are not allowed to do anything except what I
authorize you to do.”
Anarchists say, “Go ahead, take whatever control you want!”
The better choice is to say, “You can do what you want except for
the areas where I place some restrictions.”

47. The management charter of a
division should paraphrase the U.S.
Constitution, by stipulating the
reservation of authority: “All
authority not expressly and in
writing reserved to higher
management is granted to lower
management.”
- Peter F. Drucker, Management: Revised Edition

48. In political science,
the Subsidiarity
Principle is often
suggested as a solution to
this very information
challenge: social
problems should be dealt
with at the most
immediate (or local)
level, because the
solutions will be better.

49. Delegation Boards

50. Delegation levels are applied to key decision areas. The
“right” level of delegation is a balancing act. It depends on
a team’s maturity level and the impact of its decisions.
Delegation is context-dependent.

51. A delegation board enables management to clarify delegation
and foster empowerment for both management and workers.

52. A delegation board gives managers “something to control”. It is
better that they push around the notes on a delegation board
rather than the people in their organization.

53. The Micromanagement
Trap
Lack of delegation because
“it costs time”.
Delegation of control should be
seen as an investment. There is a
transaction cost involved, and it
may take a while to get a return on
such an investment.

54. Delegation increases status, power, and
control. A system with distributed control
has a better chance of survival than a
system with centralized control.

55. As a manager, I don’t manage
people, I manage the system.
And I don’t empower our
workers, I empower the
organization.

56. Play Delegation Poker!
https://management30.com/product/delegation-poker/
Exercise

57. Debrief

58. Challenges

59. 59
Practices

60. Simply Managing – Henry Mintzberg http://bit.ly/1PFI75c
Reinventing Organizations – Frédéric Lalouxhttp://bit.ly/1QUUBoV
Management: Revised Edition – Peter F. Drucker http://bit.ly/1X49ytI
Behind Closed Doors – J. Rothman, E. Derby http://bit.ly/1lAlX7S
Freedom from Command & Control – John Seddonhttp://bit.ly/1QUV6zr
Reading List

61. Want to work with your peers to solve problems
facing today's change management?
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62. info@management30.com
Text & Design: Jurgen Appelo ♦ Illustrations: Chad Geran
management30.com/delegation-boards